Prisoners in focus

Prisoners have been a big topic of conversation over the last week.

Firstly Labour and the Greens are keen to allow prisoners the right to vote. That right was taken away while National was in Government and I strongly supported that change and still do. More on that later.

Secondly the accused gunmen of the terrible mosque shootings in Christchurch has been allowed to post inflammatory letters. Prisoners like this with dangerous and extreme views shouldn’t be allowed to send out hatefuelled letters from prison. Apparently a letter was sent to an Russian address that was later posted to an online site that is popular with white supremacists. This is so embarrassing for New Zealand.

As the Prime Minister travels the world selling her ‘Christchurch Call’ to curb extreme views on social media platforms it’s been a Government own goal that these letters have easily found their way onto social media. Whoops.

The Government’s spin has quickly been to say that laws need to change but all justice experts reckon our laws are fine — they just need policing better by Corrections staff. Heads will have to roll and Minister Kelvin Davis looks vulnerable.

Now back to voting rights of prisoners — my view is simple — if you do the crime, you do the time. Our prison system is there to forcibly confine and remove the rights of those in our society who have committed crimes. So, if someone is sentenced to prison, they lose some freedoms while inside — including the right to vote.

If a crime is serious enough for someone to go to jail and lose their liberty, while in jail they should not be able to vote.

Watch Labour and the Greens (generally soft on crime) try and do a deal with NZ First to allow prisoners with a sentence of less than three years given the right to vote.

While Government support parties try and do backroom deals the public is horrified of the thought that nearly 8000 prisoners could be voting next year in the general election.

To make matters worse the alleged Christchurch gunman that claimed 51 lives has been gifted enough freedom to send letters around the world sharing his extremist views. This has made us the laughing stock of many countries.

It’s time to be tough on crime. New Zealanders deserve better from this Government.